A blog about teaching children sports, motor skills, fundamental movement skills, coordination, balance, how to play together, how to enjoy an active lifestyle, the way to let the pent-up energy all out.
We are a multi-sports and exercise programme that originated from Australia and now on the sunny, warm shores of Singapore.

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Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Keeping fit Boosts Brain Development In Children

Planning to enrol
your preschooler for another enrichment class? Think again. Research by the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign shows that the key to smarter kids
and faster brain development in children
is more physical movement and exercise, not more sedentary activities.Psychologists at
the university did a study on 49 nine and 10-year old children and discovered
that not only did fitter kids do much better in cognitive and memory tests,
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results also show that fitter children have
larger brain structures than less fit children.

Physical activity linked to larger brain development in
childrenThe MRI images
show that fitter children have significantly larger basal ganglia – an area deep in the forebrain that keeps us
attentive, coordinates our movements and thoughts, and maintains our working
memory. A good working memory is crucial to a child’s learning, reasoning and
language comprehension.In another study
by the same university, researchers found that fitter children not only did
much better in memory and information integration tests than less fit children,
they have a bigger hippocampus – a
part of the forebrain responsible for learning and memory. A more developed
hippocampus and basal ganglia are needed for more efficient complex thinking
such as solving mathematical problems.As the child’s
brain would have reached 90% of its adult size by age 6, these fitter kids are likely
to be physically active before
entering school.Exercise triggers brain’s nerve cells to multiplyAccording to DrJohn Ratey, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical
School, brains of physically active children have more neural connections due to
higher levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF.BDNF is why
brain’s nerve cells multiply and make new connections, enabling the child to
acquire new learning and knowledge. It also spurs cellular growth
(neurogenesis) in early brain development in children.

With so much
research supporting the direct link between physical movement and brain
development in children, are Singapore parents neglecting a most fundamental
aspect of growth by focusing too much on academic-based enrichment classes for
their preschoolers?What you can do to promote faster brain development in 1) Peel your child away from the iPad,
video and computer game consoles!2) Get your child to
be more physically active: it will naturally boost your child’s capacity to
focus, learn and store information. How exercise benefits your child. 3) Lay the foundation early for good physical
fitness.4) Enrol your child
in an established multi-sport and exercise programme designed to help preschool
children develop fundamental movement
skills before they enter school. Sign up for a trial lesson at Ready Steady Go Kids to find out more!References: